Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Ooh La La! What a Palaver.

OK, so things are a little hectic here. All ongoing projects have been dropped and I have been running round like a headless chicken but without the gore. The reason for this is that I have been asked to take part in Ooh La La organised by burlesque beauty, Miss Dolly Tartan, and described as a "tasty treat of burlesque, vintage and hand-crafted fashion". This mix of market and catwalk shows takes place on the 23rd of July in Glasgow's Britannia Panopticon and is part of the Merchant City Festival. For those of you not familiar with the Panopticon (pictured left in the 1890's), it is the oldest surviving music hall in the UK, if not the world! This gorgeous old building played host to some of the greatest stars of music hall & silver screen such as Harry Lauder, Stan Laurel & Cary Grant.

Ooh La La is a fundraiser towards the restoration of this building which finally closed its doors in 1938. Since then the Panopticon had suffered from years of neglect and had fell into disrepair until the Britannia Music Hall Trust and The Friends of Britannia Panopticon stepped in to the safeguard this wonderful piece of social history from disappearing forever.

Catwalk shows will be on all day so I am designing a small collection of six corsets to be shown with the stunning creations of top Edinburgh milliner, Le Hat Noir. Boy, has this been a hard one. I have spent the best part of a couple of weeks pacing the floor and reading every fashion book and corsetry tome that I have in the house, and there are loads. Still inspiration, that fickle mistress, just sat and thumbed her nose at me and I have been left without a clue of what I was going to make. Saying that, I did make a start at the weekend, spending most of Sunday cutting and sewing like a dervish. Keeps the neighbours amused anyway!

I finally started on a yellow and black number using this fabric combination. I fell in love with the canary yellow sikdupion fabric when I saw it but didn't purchase enough to make a whole overbust corset and be able to bind it in self-fabric. I am going to use black satin duchesse binding and set it off with black velvet and black/gold/white jacquard ribbon.

About Me

Hello, my name is Kelly. Welcome to MoR! This is the spot to follow the creative highs and lows as I try to upcycle my life. Boring scientist by day, secret seamstress by night. I love all things sewing, crafting, vintage fashion & home related. I am a complete corset obsessive, making corsets under the "Bad Kitty" banner and have been known to sew a costume or two. I live in Glasgow with way too much vintage fabric and sewing machines.
When I am not sewing I like gardening, cooking and baking. I have a beautiful daughter who thinks I am embarrassing and a very cuddly cat.